we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> he stands for peace, he stands for reconciliation. people were calling for revenge, he was the one to reach piece. this for the 27 years in prison. i will beat them at their own game. i am preaching forgiveness and that is how you defeat the enemy. >> giving deep respect and deep admiration. what were your feelings when you learned the news tonight? >> for a long time, south

africans have always known that mandela was very ill. he was 95 years old. we had been told by families, by members of the presidency and government that he was stable but critical. we knew that he was frail. a lot of people have been expecting this news as long as nelson mandela had been released from prison but now that it has it is after midnight right now. a lot of people will not have heard what has happened. we're likely to see people bit of openery space everywhere in south africa. they will be mourning their hero, their father. that he we we called him in south africa. father to the nation. he is not a saint but he has

been good for the reconciliation process of south africa. >> james, i will be with you in a second but i do want to bring ofwers to this view president obama. here is what he had to say. nelsonis trial in 1964, mandela close to statement from the dock saying i have fought against white domination and i have fought against black domination. i have cherished the ideals of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. an ideal that i hope to live for and achieve. it is an ideal, for which i am prepared to die. nelson mandela lived for that ideal and he made it real.

he achieved more than could be expected of any man. .oday, he has gone home we have lost one of the most influential, courageous, and profoundly good human beings that any of us will ever spend time with on this earth. he no longer belongs to us, he belongs to the ages. underpinned ind will to sacrifice his own freedom for the freedom of others, he transformed south .frica and moved all of us his journey from a prisoner to a president embodied the promise that human beings and countries can change for the better. his commitment to transfer power, to reconcile with those thatailed him, an example all humanity should aspire to, whether in the lives of nations

or our own personal lives. the fact that he did it all with grace him with humor, and the ability to acknowledge his own imperfection only makes him that much more remarkable. as he once said, i am not a saint unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying. >> president obama speaking at the white house just a few minutes ago with his moving tribute having heard the news that former president mandela has died. by james robbins, our diplomatic correspondent who spent several years in south africa. what is your memory of the time that you were there? >> my strongest memory is of the immense privilege of being in cape town on that sunday in february him in 1990 when nelson mandela walked out. it was of course the most important moment in my journalistic career. you have to remember, if i can

take people back in their memory, this was a man, people have hardly seen any pictures of him. his image was and. it was not lawful to have an image of nelson mandela. people were sent to prison for having a photograph of him. he had been suppressed. he finally made that walk to freedom. the very next day, i remember sitting in the garden at the first conference that he gave and i asked him quite simply, what surprised you most as he made that walk to the prison gates and he said, it was a number of white people that have come out among the huge crowd. that was a deliberately reconciling statement already had that very first instant that he was being political. he was holding out a hand to the minority that had oppressed him. he knew he had to embrace.

that is extraordinary to hear from a man who lost 27 years of life, had been imprisoned when his first son had died. who have suffered so much deprivation. was radiating forgiveness. that is my abiding memory. he was in the fullest sense of this word a unique figure. >> he was. it was his utter dignity and forgiveness that marked him out. he inspired whole nations and i want to make one brief point, he the whiteranscended regime that had suppressed important so long. wanted to negotiate with him and he said i cannot negotiate unless i am a free man.

they cooked putting pressure on him to renounce violence. he said, i cannot negotiate as long as i were a member -- as long as i remain in prison and i will not abandon the principle of one man, one vote. he produced and presided over the first government, on extraordinary multiracial democracy. let's not forget the extraordinary constitution that he helped to bring into being. >> you have been on an interesting journey. when they voted for the first time back in 1994, it marked the end of more than three centuries in which they have been inferior citizens in their own land. they queued in their millions to take part in the democratic process.

we will be back to find out how that change people's lives. >> south african families out enjoying themselves. there might not be anything particularly unusual about that but they have the height of the party. this is something very extraordinary. this was once a white only suburb. i was reporting on the struggle against apartheid and the regimes extraordinarily brutal response to all and any opposition. andhe years since then since nelson mandela's release, i have been back several times talking to ordinary south africans about the immense difference that nelson mandela made to their lives. here are some of their stories. antoinette peterson is coming to terms with her terrible loss as a schoolgirl in the 1970's.

her screaming grief. it is june, 1976 and her 13- year-old brother has just been shot and killed by the police. the first victim of the uprising. this museum of apartheid is named in his honor. school children learn the violent history here. for several years, they andront the past everyday their grief. after years, of trying to bury it. she said that nelson mandela inspired her to change. ,> every time i spoke about it i become confused. to prison for seven years and they kept on going. >> next, the story of herman

daly. i met him in 2004. the mayor of wellington is showing some of the riches to the japanese ambassador, drumming up business, showing which nelsonation mandela did so much to create. they would've never been able to do this in a town ruled by the white minority. value for himll to have been incarcerated all these years and the first speech he said, let bygones be bygones. he was very influenced by the government. they could not believe that this was the word of someone would've been incarcerated for so long. >> then came another. another prisoner. this is the valley of grace, further east in the cape.

it was the first christian mission statement in -- station in south africa. this is a community which resisted apartheid. nelson mandela named his home after the village. 69 days in solitary confinement almost killed him. nelson mandela's example kept him going. thatjust got the feeling i would never come out alive. wonder what nelson mandela was doing at that time. he had been there for so many years. how he could endure such fromre, to be separated the community for so many years. only a fewfor months and it was so hard, so difficult. it was practically unbearable.

>> this is our last witness to nelson mandela's greatness. ?> do you feel uncomfortable >> she used to to believe that nelson mandela was a terrorist. .o be feared, not admired her pupils were exclusively white into the mid-1990's. now, she rejoices in the change to multiracial education. back then, she was really scared when nelson mandela was freed from prison. will we be able to move around the way we used to? will we be thrown into jail? we started talking and reassured people that this country will work together and there is never going to be a thing like apartheid in south africa.

of a handfulories of south africans who lived through the worst of times, there are thousands, possibly millions that have similar stories to tell. -- a handful ofs of of south africans who lived through the worst of times, there are thousands, possibly millions that have similar stories to tell. to see the new free south africa, you just have to look around. in a short reaction while. we will talk a little bit about president obama, bill gates already playing tribute and the u.s. secretary-general. you have just seen that moving piece by james. want to talkle and want to pay tribute and want to recognize what happened to them on that day was changed millions of lives. >> that is absolutely right.

every south african, regardless of their political view, was touched by that moment. there were some on the far right who were appalled. they felt the trade by their leaders. the hard-line had been taken since 1948 and it had been abandoned. they were frankly frightened. a schoolteacher at code. white south africans utterly , allized nelson mandela of those who stood behind him. it was a dangerous moment. immediatelyears after his release were dangerous moments. time fora dangerous him to lead to persuade all south africans that they could actually feel safe in the hands of the government they had just elected. it is impossible to exaggerate the extent to which he had to more political stature.

everybody around him i think acknowledged that he was head and shoulders above them. there were rivalries but not about him. >> you were saying earlier about the memories of the day when he was released. i'm just wondering about the significance of that election when he became the first lack president of south africa. of thee your memories experience of that day? >> when all this was happening, i was young. , in fact.young i was too young to even vote when millions of south africans were bused in at a school. thet of people were wearing vivars and shouting "

mandela." nelsonthe people that mandela was with him fighting for the liberation. there was a lot of nervousness. as much as people were shouting, there were a lot a police presence. people were worried about what was going to happen. what are we expecting for the next day. as you rightly say, a lot of people, not everyone was happy about the release of nelson mandela from prison but over the years, things seem to have changed because of this reconciliation and forgiveness that nelson mandela kept preaching. each time that he is sick and hospitalized or was sick or hospitalized, i'm no -- a lot of south africans were in that waiting room virtually.

many of them were white people. please don't let him die, we don't know what the future is for us white south africans. there is still the belief that , his long walkes to freedom has ended, what is to happen to them? that is the question that many people are still asking. >> i mentioned the fact that the un's secretary-general had been paying his tribute. him a giant for justice. bill gates said that they had been inspired when they met president mandela a number of that and basically saying he was a tireless fighter for quality and justice for all people. the duke and duchess of cambridge were at the film debut of "mandela." >> this is tragic news.

we are reminded of what extraordinary man he was. from theibute there duke of cambridge earlier tonight. we saw president obama earlier talking about president mandela's contribution. we have more on what the president had to say and where he basically characterize that tribute. >> it is very interesting on a number of levels. president obama spoke about his first political involvement being in the anti-apartheid movement. this is something we will see over the coming days. people in the civil rights movement looked towards south africa and felt the pride in seeing a black president in place. america's first black president paid tribute to the fierce

dignity, as he called it, of nelson mandela. he took a great lesson from that. nelson mandela no longer belongs to us but to the ages. he said that is not the lessons of all addicts but of people in their own personal lives. decisions should be guided, not by hate but by love. a quote from echo martin luther king. he said, he took history in his hands and bent the moral half of the universe. >> we have been reporting the death of former president mandela in south africa at the age of 95. increasingly frail in recent months. lots of concern about his health over the past two or three years.

presidentnnounced by zuma about 45 minutes ago. looking atnt, we are the death of nelson mandela on bbc news. south africa's ruling african national congress has said that the world lost a colossus and the epitome of quality, justice, and peace. nelson mandela immersed himself in a campaign for justice and an end to poverty in this country. we look at how despite declining health, he continued the fight for strengthening human rights. campe close of the world

in south africa and to the deafening sound of blues a-list vuvuzelas. the year before, frail and exercising their democratic right he fought for most of his life. years were not always so happy. this was the funeral of his eldest son who died of aids. the aging mandela spent much of his time in the capital of mozambique and home to his wife. as he grew older, he traveled less frequently but it made it to london for the unveiling of a statue of him outside of parliament.

gordon brown paid tribute. abraham lincoln, the great emancipator, stand with nelson mandela, the liberator. >> nelson mandela himself recalled a visit to london 45 years earlier. close when we visited , weminster abby in 1962 joked that we hoped that one day a statue of a black .resident would be erected here [applause] back months later, he was in london to celebrate his 90th birthday. he met the queen. he attended a concert in his honor. speaking at the lectern carrying his number, he called

for no let up in the battle against poverty and aids. >> after nearly 90 years of your hands time for to lift the burdens. .t is in your hands now i thank you. [applause] that was a sense of the determination and the strength and the energy of a campaign that spanned six decades. really underlining what a remarkable life he led. close we're used to the story. it is at a time like this where

you cannot reflect on what he achieved and to recognize those milestones in his life. three decades in prison and how that transformed him, not just as a man but as a leader. obviously, he was south africa's first black president and the way in which he led the country, that five years in which he led the country. it was a different south africa. , someonesouth africa is talking about peace. he is inviting investors to come to south africa because south africa is rich in minerals. people wanted to internationalize those that has they belong to them. it was a different story. now, south africans are looking and that country as if mandela wouldt preach that, it have been a different south africa that we are seeing now. >> i think that is what people are reflecting.

david cameron, the prime .inister >> tonight, one of the brightest lights of our world has gone out. nelson mandela was not just a hero of our time -- >> makes sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide capital for key strategic

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